Vandals spray-painted the words “Republican means slavery” on the door of the York County GOP campaign headquarters overnight Friday.

Party volunteers called police after discovering the message when they arrived at the office on Rock Hill’s Oakland Avenue. The vandals also stole about 45 candidate signs from the front yard and spray-painted over a banner that carried a picture of Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Their messages included lettering and symbols sometimes used by gangs.

Outside the Bellevue, Palin, sitting in her car, gave a little back and forth wave to the protesters, who in return gave her thumbs down and rounds of boos.

“Back to Alaska, They shouldn’t have Asked ya!” read one poster on the median.

Police said about 400 protesters lined the streets outside the hotel, the same number that organizers expected at the fund-raiser, chanting to each other and to passing motorists. Inside, Palin got her hair and makeup done at Pierre & Carlo Salon & Spa.

At times, Republicans attending the event and protesters confronted one another.

“They are hooligans,” said Bucks County restaurateur and McCain supporter Andrew Abruzzese, after he flashed a peace sign at protesters, who responded with raised middle fingers. Another Republican complained of being jostled.

Of Palin’s rise from PTA activist to City Council to mayor to governor to vice presidential candidate, Abruzzese said: “You couldn’t get a more natural progression than that.”

Several Republican attendees complained of the protesters’ vulgarity, especially in light of recent criticism of the behavior of people at McCain-Palin rallies.

Outside on Broad Street, waiting for Palin to leave, one man was heard saying: “Let’s stone her, old school.”

The 4-1 Panthers take their act on the road today as they visit Tampa Bay to take on the 3-2 Buccaneers. Jeff Garcia will be TB’s QB today, replacing the injured Brian Griese. The Panthers are 7-1 overall against the Bucs.

Should be a good game today. Game time is 1pm ET and it will be broadcast on Fox.

Update: “Should be a good game today”? Leave it to me and my terrible predictions. The Cats couldn’t get anything going today. Coach Jon “Chuckie” Gruden prepared his team well, and the Bucs won the game handily 27-3.

The description of the event the remarks were made at reads, “Heartland Democratic Presidential Forum 12/07 – forum for thousands of community organizers including Gamaliel and ACORN people.” Here’s the vid:

I was watching CNN this morning and they were showing clips of an interview they did with ACORN director Bertha Lewis and she blatantly lied by acting like Republicans only just now in the last month were starting to find these problems, implying that the only reason they were doing so was in an attempt to ‘scare’ voters. There’s a pretty good write-up at The Politico website that lays waste to Lewis’ argument, as the battles between the GOP and ACORN have gone on for decades.

Cross-posted to Right Wing News, where I am helping guestblog for John Hawkins on Sundays.